1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection apparatus adapted to eject liquid on a target medium supported on a platen, and relates to a holder for a liquid absorber incorporated in the platen.
2. Related Art
For example, as an ink jet printer serving as a liquid ejecting apparatus, there is a type which performs printing without remaining any margin on the entire surface of sheet serving as a target medium, that is, which can execute a so-called marginless printing. In such an ink jet printer, a platen which supports paper and defines the position of the paper with respect to a printing head is provided with recesses for discarding ink droplets ejected outside of the edges of the paper. An ink absorber made of material such as polypropylene in a sponge state, which is high in porosity and good in ink absorbability, is integrally attached into the recesses for discarding ink. Such a configuration is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-155109A (JP-A-2004-155109).
In the aforesaid ink jet printer, an amount of ink capable of being absorbed into the ink absorber is limited. Thus, when the absorbed amount of the ink reaches the limited value, the ink absorber is required to be replaced. In this case, since the ink absorber is integrally attached to the platen, it is required to replacement the platen entirely. However, it is difficult to make the state of the platen after the replacement coincide completely with the state of the platen before the replacement, and so the printing state may change between the state before the replacement and the state after the replacement.